The Liberals Wins In A Landslide but the PC Leader John Tory Is Out Of A Job!
The results are in and the Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty wins another majority government in the province of Ontario. McGuinty winning is not a surprise but the strength of the Liberal majority government is. For a second time McGuinty is the Premier of the province of Ontario for another four years. It is the first time in seventy years that the Liberals have back to back majority government in the province of Ontario. McGuinty is in control of the province. The Liberals won 71 seats, the Progressive Conservative party only won 26 seats, and the New Democratic Party as usual was in third place with only 10 seats.
The real shock however, is that John Tory the leader of the Progressive Conservative party not only lost the election he’s out of a job. Tory lost in his own riding to the Education Minister Kathleen Wynne. It is the first time since 1990 that a leader of a political party lost their own seat in the province of Ontario. It will only be a matter of time before Tory is removed as leader of the PC party. Tory has lost the confidence of the Ontario public he has to go away and disappear.
The Progressive Conservative party will have to choose a new leader. Tory had a crushing defeat he didn’t even win a seat at Queens Park. Tory is finished. Tory says he will continue as leader of the Progressive Conservative party. How is this possible when he doesn’t even have a seat in the legislature? How can Tory be leader when he doesn’t even have the confidence of the public in his own riding? Maybe its time for John Tory to think about getting a new job out of politics? In the year 2004 Tory also ran in the municipal election to become the mayor of Toronto and he lost to David Miller. Now Tory has lost at the municipal level and the provincial level, I guess that leaves Tory one last place to lose at the Federal level?
Tory lost the Ontario election for one reason the faith based school scheme. Tory thought by attempting to reach the “ethnic vote” he could secure enough votes to become the Premier of Ontario. Ontario citizens rejected the faith based school scheme because taxpayers do not want to pay extra taxes for people that want special schools for their kids. If people want Jewish schools, Muslim schools, Hindu schools, Korean, Japanese, or Chinese,schools they have to pay out of their own pockets. I believe Catholic schools should also be abolished in the province of Ontario. There should be a separation between church and state. The public school system exists for a reason its for all people and its the only system tax payers dollars should be funding.
The second reason Tory lost was due to his personality. Tory just doesn’t have the strength to be a leader. Tory always appeared to be a follower behind McGuinty. Tory came across as defensive and indifferent when asked tough questions. What would Tory had done if he became Premier of Ontario? I think it was the unknown that frightened people. People still remember the havoc the last Premier of Ontario Mike Harris caused the province of Ontario.
The quandary for John Tory was that the faith based schools scheme was the “only” topic that the media and public focused on. Tory backed off on the issue of the faith based schools scheme when the polls indicated he was losing the support and confidence of voters. When Tory backed off I knew he lost because it was a sign of weakness. The Progressive Conservative faith based schools strategy also allowed Premier Dalton McGunity off the hook. The auto sector is suffering in the province of Ontario, health care is always an issue. McGuinty wasn’t challenged about the lack of social housing, about the issue of domestic violence, about rising tuition rates. All the other important issues were left unexplored. McGuinty was attacked by the New Democratic leader Howard Hampton and John Tory but it didn’t phase him at all. McGuinty appeared confident and it showed that he should not be underestimated as a leader. Due to the Progressive Conservative party’s incompetence McGuinty soared to another majority.
The New Democratic Party also has questions to answer. The NDP has not been in power since 1994. For over thirteen very long years the NDP has seen its numbers grow smaller and smaller in the province of Ontario. How much longer will Howard Hampton be the NDP leader? Hampton’s had his chance its now time for Hampton to make a graceful exit and let someone else be the leader of the NDP. The NDP needs a change and it needs a change right now. I doubt members of the NDP party are happy about their lack luster performance in the provincial election. Its obvious that Ontario voters have not warmed to the NDP in over a decade. The NDP has serious questions to answer if they ever hope to return to power in the province of Ontario. Howard Hampton has failed to increase the power of the NDP party in the province of Ontario. Perhaps someone fresh, maybe someone younger someone with new ideas, someone fresher, should be the new NDP leader? Howard Hampton did maintain his seat but how long will he keep his job? John Tory’s stunning defeat will indeed have the Liberals snickering in secret of course.
McGuinty may have won a second majority government but he has to realize that there are serious social and economic problems in the province of Ontario that needs to be addressed. The next four years are crucial for the Liberal party. McGuinty can enjoy his victory tonight but if McGuinty continues to raise taxes and doesn’t do enough to benefit the people of Ontario he could face the anger of the public. John Tory learned the hard way not to underestimate the public and now he’s out of a job.
Gayblackcanada 
If people want Jewish schools, Muslim schools, Hindu schools, Korean, Japanese, or Chinese,schools they have to pay out of their own pockets.
Seriously! If people want their kids to learn their foreign cultures they should go back to their own countries. This is Ontario and we are a melting pot. Kids should grow up Canadian, not foreign.
Your analysis of John Tory seems a little myopic. John Tory seemed doomed from the beginning. First he is a conservative in search of support from a very Liberal Toronto. Secondly, his need to win over Toronto forced him to focus too much of his time and resources in Toronto. Unfortunately he did not receive the returns on his investment. Turns out Toronto was Crip walking all the way to the voting booth. Additionally, the idea of faith based schools was a not merely polarizing it was poorly introduced to the public. The truth is Canadians- read Euro-Canadians- are frightened by anything that seems to priviledge minorities. The idea behind faith based schools was summed up in the public imagination as giving those coloureds separate schools- that was the fear. Canadian schools are currently segregated along many lines. Come to a school in Scarborough and you will see what i mean. Last year my sister graduated and there were only two white students in the graduating class. Yet most of the admin and staff white white- go figure. I was not sure if new funding for faith based schools was in addition to the tax deductions one gets for taking one’s children from the public school system. The whole idea was poorly developed.
I find it interesting that you are so adamantly opposed to faith based schools when the African Canadian community has for years been lobbying for black focused schools. These two issues may not be mirrors of each other but the are eerily similar. Currently all faiths have separate schools. The proliferation of those sending their children to private schools is skyrocketing. It seems that all well to do middle classers are doing it. There are Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Bhaha’i and many more faith based schools around. The error would be to write them off and pretend they do not exist. There needs to be ways to integrate them into the educational system so that the students are not disadvantaged by attending them.
Funny enough I am not fond of the idea because it seems like Government is downloading responsibility for education. Similar to outsourcing, I am sure faith based communities would be responsible to cover admin costs while tax payers would merely subsidize the cost of learning. Seems like a deal to me if you are into cutting and slashing the public coffers as the conservatives are accustomed to.
I am sure there is more to be said. The issue is not as simple as faith based schools are bad.
Tory’s faith based schools scheme wasn’t done out of sincerity he doesn’t really care about non white voters. I do agree that yes there could of been some fear from white Toronto voters to vote against Tory because of the faith based schools scheme. I also think though there could of been people of colour that are against faith based schools because they see it as a form of segregation.
Tory used the faith based school scheme because he knows the GTA has a very large non white population that are also conservative. Tory thought if he targeted this group he could secure enough votes to win the election. John Tory wasn’t going to win this election anyway he dug his own grave. Tory wanted the “ethnic” vote he thought the “faith based” schools scheme would be appealing to “ethnic voters” they would vote for him but some of them didn’t vote for Tory either.
I have always been against black only schools I don’t believe that’s the answer either. Black kids need to interact with other children and people of other races. A separate school system will not help them to deal with the real world. The real culprit is the racism within the upper levels of the public school system. There needs to be more people of colour hired at the top levels in the education system.
I also believe there needs to be a change in the course options for kids of all races. I also believe black kids should have a choice at the high school level such as taking classes in African Canadian history. I think the real problem is the hiring standards that’s the problem. Some white teachers can say they don’t have “racial prejudices” or “biases” but sometimes racism is covert and overt. In the big cities such as Toronto, GTA, Hamilton, Ottawa, Windsor, there more people of colour living there and there needs to be more teachers of colour in the class room to reflect the changing Ontario population.
I am also against Catholic school funding. I don’t believe Catholic schools should exist at all its a waste of taxpayers money. Why should Catholics get their own school system and other groups cannot? Fair is fair its time to abolish the Catholic school system. There should be one school system for all young people and that’s the public school system. Church and State must always be separate this is Canada not the United States.